In the following essay
I identify some of the images of God I have found in
contemporary, popular movies. Some of these are visual
images of God, while others are conceptions of what God
expects from us or for us. I conclude that the God of the
movies is both gentle and tough, merciful and stern,
caring and just. Movies may emphasize the merciful, but
the images of God include both mercy and justice and the
emphasis mirrors the emphasis on mercy in our own
culture. We are, on the whole, optimists, and the images
of God in the movies support such optimism.

Article

[1] For the past several years I have
been teaching a course called "Sociology of Religion
in Popular Culture." In this course I use recent
movies to represent popular culture and use the images of
god in these movies to represent religion(s).

[2] I first ask my students to describe
the images of God found in a variety of contemporary
popular movies. My students find this difficult because
they believe that the images of God which they already
have are the correct images. The images of God in the
movies, then, are often very different and even contrary
to the images of God that my students have before taking
the class. Showing that there are many different images
of God, however, enables me to make the point that there
is no literal or correct way to talk about God, that all
God-talk is metaphorical, even the talk with which my
students are already familiar.

[3] I then ask my students to say
something about what the images of God in the movies we
see in the class tell us about religion and popular
culture. I believe that images of God are symbols of what
people believe about life and death and so they tell us
something very important about popular culture and
religion. Since the focus of the course is on images of
God, and not on whether God exists, it is a proper focus
for sociological study.

All That Jazz
(1979)

[4] In Bob Fosse's
autobiographical fantasy, All That Jazz, the main
character, Joe Gideon (played by Roy Scheider and
representing Bob Fosse), spends most of his time driving
himself and using other to complete his projects and win
acclaim. Gideon is addicted to drugs, alcohol,
cigarettes, and women, which he uses to keep himself
going.

[5] Such a life cannot
last long (Fosse, himself, dies eight years after making
the movie) and as Joe moves toward death he encounters
Angelique, a vision in white played by Jessica Lange.
Angelique is the image of God in this movie and an
unusual image of God she, beginning with the fact that
Angelique is a woman. Not only is Angelique a woman, but
she is a sexually attractive woman and, as death nears,
Angelique removes her hat and veil and lets her hair
down, becoming even more sexually attractive. As though
this were not enough, it is also obvious that Angelique
finds Joe Gideon sexually desirable.

The Rapture
(1991)

[6] The Rapture is the story of
a woman, Sharon, who uses drugs and casual sex to deal
with boredom and fear, at least until she hears about the
religious idea of a coming "Rapture," the end
of time. After hearing about the Rapture and joining a
group of believers, Sharon marries, has a daughter, and
livers a more stable and ordinary life, until her husband
is killed by a disgruntled former employee.

[7] After the death of her husband,
Sharon anticipates the Rapture more seriously. Eventually
she takes her daughter out into the desert to await the
Rapture. But the Rapture does not come. share kills her
daughter, intending also to kill herself, in order that
both might be with God and the child's father. But Sharon
cannot kill herself. She is found and taken to jail. It
is there that the Rapture occurs. Sharon has the
opportunity to go to heaven, but cannot believe that God
would accept her after killing her own child. Since she
is no longer a believer, she is condemned to hell rather
than welcomed into heaven.

[8] The image of God in The Rapture
is not a visual or loving one, but an intellectual and
judging one. The God of The Rapture is a stern
God, one who is willing to condemn a woman to hell
because she cannot accept God's rules. But this God not
only allows her to kill her child: this God still
requires her complete belief in order to enter heaven.
(See Carl B. Greiner's, The Rapture: A Challenging
Vision of Horror," in JRF, vol. 1, no. 1.)

Oh, God! (1977)

[9] George Burns as God?
Yes, when God makes his appearance to Assistant Food
Manager, Jerry Landers (John Denver), it is in the form
of George Burns. But, God tells Jerry, he could have
appeared in any other form ("even a woman"). He
chose this form because it is a form that Jerry can
understand. (Indeed, God tells Jerry that the human mind
would not be able to grasp God as God really is.)

[10] In this movie, God is
kind, gentle, fun-loving, funny, and encouraging. God
even admits to having made some mistakes along the way,
including tobacco, ostriches, avocados, and shame. God
also tells Jerry that he has been selected, by accident,
to spread God's concern about the way human beings are
living. The world is not all planned. It was created, and
from that point forward it was up to the human species to
make it work. Wearing glasses, a golf hat and tennis
shoes, God tells Jerry that people need to behave better,
that they need to improve the world, and that it is still
possible for things to work out well.

Jacob's Ladder
(1990)

[11] Jacob Singer (played
by Tim Robbins) is a Vietnam soldier or veteran,
depending upon how you interpret the story. The movie is
the story of Jacob's struggle with the death of his son
(prior to Jacob's tour of duty) and with a government
conspiracy. The conspiracy concerns covering up the use
of a drug (BZ, known as "the ladder") that
increases human aggression. Jacob's unit is (was) the
experimental group, but the drug causes the soldiers to
become so aggressive that they kill each other instead of
the enemy.

[12] During these two
struggles, Jacob is assisted by a chiropractor, Louie,
played by Danny Aiello. Although Louie does not play a
large role in the movie, he represents a God that heals
and cares for Jacob. More importantly, Louie represents a
God who advises Jacob that if he is afraid of dying, then
the devils come after him, but if he has made his peace,
then the devils are really angels freeing him from earth.
Jacob Singer finally does make his peace and walks off
into the light.

Truly, Madly,
Deeply (1991)

[13] Nina, played by
Juliet Stevenson, finds it impossible to overcome the
death of her musician lover, Jamie, played by Alan
Rickman. She is unable to go on with her life until the
ghost of Jamie arrives on the scene. At first Nina makes
a new life for herself with the ghost of Jamie, but after
a while she finds that living with a ghost is not very
satisfying and she takes up with Mark, a young man
(played by Michael Maloney) who cares for a group of
retarded persons.

[14] Jamie's ghost
provides the image of God. As God or as God's
representative, Jamie's ghost cares for and nurtures
Nina. Finally, Jamie's ghost encourages Nina to go on
living - to take up with mark and make a life for
herself without the ghost. This is very difficult for the
ghost to do because, like a mother's love for a maturing
child, he loves Nina and wants to be with her. But in the
end, the ghost is happy for Nina, even though she is with
someone else. God displays a bit of jealousy here, but
overcomes it for the sake of Nina's happiness.

Babette's Feast
(1987)

[15] Babette's Feast
is the story of two sisters, Martina and Philippa, whose
father is the founder of a religious community in a
Danish coastal town. Having chosen against their chances
at romance and fame, the sisters have embraced this
religion of their father and the community. All of this
changes when they take in a boarder/cook, Babette, a
political refugee from the French Revolution.

[16] Babette is the
representative of God in this film. Played by Stephane
Audran, Babette is the refugee and, quite obviously, the
salvation of the two sisters. She provides them with
better food at less expense. After winning a French
lottery, she insists on cooking and serving a banquet for
the sisters and the religious community in honor of the
anniversary of their father's death. The banquet is a
kind of reenactment of the Last supper, and it provides
all of the participants an opportunity not only to
indulge their appetites but also to forgive each other
and to live more joyously together. (See Wendy Wright's Babette's
Feast, in JRF, vol.1, no. 2.)

Flatliners
(1990)

[17] Flatliners
is the story of a group of medical students who want to
discover experientially whether or not there is something
beyond death. To accomplish this, each one in turn is
caused to die - creating a "flatline" on the
heart monitor - and then is resuscitated by his or her
fellow students. What the students discover is that after
death they encounter some "sin" from their
past, a sin that returns with them when they come back
from being dead. The only way to rid themselves of the
haunting sin is to seek forgiveness.

[18] Although they have
heard talk of bright lights and tunnels, what they
actually discover is not a visual image of God, but an
understanding of what God wants our lives to be like. And
what God wants is for us to ask forgiveness of those whom
we have harmed in some way or other. Or, in one case, the
young woman's father asks for her forgiveness. God is an
emphasis upon forgiveness, and only through forgiveness
can we live well, live without feat.

Always
(1989)

[19] In this movie,
Richard Dreyfuss plays a fire-fighting pilot (Pete
Sandich) who dies after saving the life of his best
friend, Al Yackey (played by John Goodman). His
girlfriend, Dorinda (Holly Hunter) continues to mourn for
Pete, in a way that is very similar to Nina's mourning
for Jamie in "Truly, madly, Deeply." Pete
returns to earth as an invisible angel, instructed by an
angel in white, played by Audrey Hepburn.

[20] Even though he is
dead, Pete wants Dorinda to "be his girl," but
he learns that he must let her go if he is to free
himself of his pain, a pain which he continues to
experience even though he is in heaven. This, too, is a
movie about what God wants for our lives. God wants us to
be free, but in order to be free we must let others be
free as well. God does not want the memory of love to
make us unhappy for the rest of our lives - whether on
earth or elsewhere. And God wants us to help others,
again whether we are on earth or elsewhere. Angels are
always helping other angels who in turn help still
others.

Mr. Destiny (1990)

[21] Mr. Destiny is a
bartender, Mike (played by Michael Caine). Mike gives
Larry Burrows (James Belushi) a potion that enables Larry
to experience his life as it might have been if he had
hit a home run in the state championship, instead of
striking out. At first Larry is amazed at his new life -
it is everything he dreamed of before taking the potion.
he is now president of the company, married to the
owner's daughter, rich, and powerful. Soon he discovers
that his new life comes with its own set of problems and
pains, and that his new life precludes his enjoyment of
the things that were so special in his previous life.
having learned his lesson, Larry drinks another potion
and returns to this "real" life and appreciates
it more than before.

[22] God's message, taught
by Mr. Destiny, is that we ought to appreciate our lives
fully, instead of spending so much time wishing that
things could be different. The greatest satisfaction and
joy will come from living one's life as it is - "everything will work out." It is a mistake to
think that some other life would be better for you, as
Larry learns when given the change change his life.

Summary

[23] What judgment can we
make about God in the movies? - if we dare to make any
judgments about God at all! Is She gentle enough, loving
enough, affectionate enough, tender enough, forgiving
enough? There doesn't seem to be any doubt about those
questions: Certainly She is. But is She too soft, too
forgiving, too tolerant, too indulgent of our freedoms?
Might it be better if the God of movies showed some
outrage, some sense of justice?

[24] It is pure nonsense
that there's a difference between the God of the Jewish
scriptures and that of the Christian scriptures. God is
love in the Jewish scriptures, too. But must we really
accept the notion that the God of the movies is not
tough? In the most gentle and charming manifestations -
as portrayed by Jessica Lange and Audrey Hepburn - She
seems plenty tough. Affectionate, yes - but putting up
with no nonsense, no self-deception, no evasion, no silly
excuses. compassion and strength are not incompatible.
Neither are love and justice. But as such Catholic
theologians as Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Baltassar
have said: God's mercy is stronger than his justice. So
too it would seem with the God of the movies, much like
an orthodox God after all.

[25] Movies also tell us
that American religion is firmly committed to the notion
of a gracious rather than a punitive God, perhaps because
America is a nation dedicated to freedom and a nation
that never suffered too much (not since the Civil War,
anyway) and Americans are incorrigible optimists. God in
the movies is someone who supports and sustains American
optimism.